I hope you all are enjoying your casual battle royales! Behind the scenes, the other Executives and I have been hard at work preparing for the big release next issue! "What's that?" you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait and see!

safariguy5 has a Mess Hall brimming with fine articles, including the new series, "JD's Hot List", and the return of DoomYoshi's "Random Game Analysis", plurple debuts with his first brief article in War Games, koontz fills up another Cartographic Surveillance with hippo's return on the horizon, and Leehar's back to introduce this issue's Platoon Report with skillfusniper33, QuikSilver, and DJoach! But first things first!

Our Subscriber of the Issue this issue is barterer2002! PM me a new name that is under the "ConquerClub Dispatch Team" heading and the medal is all yours!

And what about that little contest we did last issue? Let's see who won...

Congrats on your 3 months of premium and General Achievement Medal! (To be awarded soon)

And congrats to our runners-up who will also be receiving General Achievement Medals: Ffraid (2nd), barterer2002 (3rd) (Wow! 2 medals in 1 issue!), and DoomYoshi (4th)! There were still two more medals up for grabs, but only 4 players answered correctly!

The long anticipated and awaited Mafia Awards of 2011 are coming to the ConquerClub forum near you! There should plenty of excitement, drama and buizels! There is going to be a live ceremony with two hosts, so get ready your popcorn and wait for the signal in the thread and in CC News Headlines. Without further meddling, here is the information about the awards and the 5 possible contenders for each of the award:

Yes, it's been a while. I have been quite busy, and will be busy again soon as school starts up. However, I will take advantage of the spare time that I do have and write an analysis for you.

Of course, for the first game back, I have arrived at a 1v1. For all of you who played RISK with your families, (or with other groups of people in RL) think back to how often you would with a group compared to how often you would actually play 1v1. I can honestly say I never played it 1v1, not even when I was playing against myself! (Yes, I played many board games by myself). Yet, here on CC, 1v1 is the core component for many players. I don't get it.

Anyways, on to the actual game. [Game]9976197 [/Game] is a fairly traditional Speed 1v1. It's even on the classic map. While you are looking at it, I want to draw your attention to the Great Wall of Neutralasia. Astana, Novosibirsk, Dubai, Delhi, Hong Kong, Manila, Beijing and Mumbai are all Neutral to start with. This means Australia is an absolute fortress for the player who gets it. The only problem being that Jakarta is also a starting neutral.

Neutrals in Europe and North America prevent those bonuses from being taken, so the main action switches to South America and Africa.Red Starting Territories in South America and Africa

Sao Paulo

Cape Town

Dakar

Green Starting Territories in South America and Africa

Bogota

Lima

Buenos Aires

Lagos

Johannesburg

Nairobi

Cairo

As you can see, green has 75% of the 2 troop bonus in SA and 67% of the 3 troop bonus in Africa. Some other considerations of course are the borders. Red has Mexico City while Green has the great fortune to start with both Madrid and Istanbul. Basically, Africa is defended for green. Now if green went first, the most likely move would have been to just attack Sao Paulo and hope for the best. On classic you are granted 4 troops for your first turn, so this attack has an 86% chance of succeeding. Not too shabby at all. If green is feeling particularly violent, there is a 46% chance to be able to take Dakar as well and close off the borders. Basically, in case you didn't realize, going first would put green in a great position. Things didn't end up being bad for Green though.

Red got the first go and obviously wanted to stop Green's obvious move. With some miracle dice, Red would have been able to get the bonus. Miracle dice are pretty rare (not that you would get that impression from the forums) and Red's advance was halted at one territory. Green at this point had 3 options. Option 1 would be to fight for South America. Option 2 would be to go for Australia. Joe started with Port Moresby, Perth and Sydney with Jakarta as a neutral, so this option was not really there. Option 3, although a bit counterintuitive at first is to build in Africa and go for the long haul. Consider at this point that the SA bonus is only worth 2, and he owns 50%, while being 2 territories away from getting it. I give this a value of (2*0.5) = 1. In my notes, it is valued at 1 -2 (denotes how many more territs). Africa is 2/3 owned, worth 3 and the same 2 away from getting it. So a value of 2 -2. Double the value for the same workload, a pretty obvious decision. Of course, my value system leaves out a lot, but it works well enough to get the point across, especially in this case.

Now, Red's first mistake appears. At the beginning of round 2, red has already stopped Green from taking SA. It is clear that green is building Africa at this point. Red has 3 options as well. 1) Stop Green in Africa - this one comes from a sort of mirrored style of play, which will force the game into a sort of 'dice-off'. Since green had poor luck the first turn (or didn't attack), this battle could be won. Not a great option, but not poor. 2) Take Jakarta and get the Australia bonus. This would have been the best option. I know attacking neutrals in a 1v1 is usually poor strategy. But let's look at numbers. In South America, red is 2 territories away from having a bonus of 2. In Australia, red is 2 territories away from not only having a bonus of 2, but an inpenetrable wall of neutrals to hide behind. Green started out with great board position in the main portion of the map. Red could counter by building his own hand and winning by troop attrition. Even if Red didn't manage to totally stamp out Green in Bangkok, the troops spent on the Austalian war will slow Green's africa plan. Basically, option 2 comes with option 1 included as a worst case scenario. Option 3 is to continue building in South America. That is the one that red took, and that is why he lost the game. Yes, there was a turn of terrible luck followed by a missed turn. But even with normal luck and all turns taken, based on the actions of red on turn 2, I would still predict a loss.

The winner of this game drdetroit is a Corporal 1st Class. His opponent, joe the pro is a lieutenant. I like to think that strategy mistakes eventually add up to a lower rank. Perhaps this was just a bad day for joe. Perhaps the speed of speed games tripped him up. Whatever the reason for this move, it doesn't seem to have affected his rank, relative to green.

Please don't be afraid to give me any input. Do you agree with me when I put the loss of the game at the start of the 2nd turn? It is true that I don't have actual troop counts, so I am just estimating and maybe the troops in SA were such that the attack was warranted.

That's all for this week. I hope to see you again. Happy six years to everyone.

Through out the whole history of our race, there have always been people who were just better at their specific niches. A lot of those people eventually ended up in the history books as glorified leaders, warriors, generals, craftsmen, artists. ConquerClub is no exception to that rule - the best player at that particular time is named as our Conqueror and he gets into the history books... And Blitz's threads.

Usually, everyone will never agree and share the same opinion on that matter - some may think that the title was not deserved, others might argue that the means do not matter as long as the end result is there while few others could argue that the system itself has flaws. Through out the whole history of CC, there has never once been a Conqueror that everyone would agree that this person definitely deserved to have that title. In fact, most of the Conquerors had a fair share of controversy along with their title - and the trends are only seeming to show that the amount of controversy is increasing.

Of course, getting enough points to achieve the rank of Conqueror is no mere achievement: it requires dedication, it requires patience... Most of all, it requires time. However, the position of Conqueror should be a position of integrity, of skill, of dedication and commitment to the site too. What is a better way to reflect a site than it's leading personnel?

Obviously, a lot of this has something to do with scoring system itself - instead of awarding players, that participate and compete against the best of best and win, with points, it is much easier to get those points without too high risks of losing it via other methods. Why should you play against the best of the best, if you can find particular maps with settings (and players too, sometimes) that will maximize your possible winnings while minimizing the risk? Perhaps, it's truly not the same risk we all once knew and played.

One of the most notable things that distinguishes humans from animals is ability to learn from the past, to note that mistakes that have been made before and try to eliminate them. Yes, Caesar came, he saw and he conquered - yet he paid the ultimate price in the end. That leads me to a simple question that I want to ask - do the ends really justify means in the end?

After nearly two months of play on the map Colosseum, QoH is declared the winner after enduring the Sequential game with 51 people in it. He had one territory with 1,547 troops! However, there was a 50 round limit. The game only went to round 4. Lol!

I myself have commented on this post. And I do agree for the most part... Dice are about 80% of the game and Strategy is 20%. I tend to think,"Can there be something done about such dice rolls?" Probably not... unless a new system came in. Most of the time, the dice favor the defender, but I have won some pretty ridiculous rolls on offense being outnumbered. Just on pure speculation, really.

Made by DiM and Victor Sullivan, the map "Clash of Kings"is specifically made for 1v1 battle. You get 5 territories and 5 armies per territory. There are conditional bonuses along with the map as well.

Q. Are you just the same person pretending to be a married couple to escape the multi banning system?Quirk: She won four out of the first five games she played against me. If she's my multi I'd say I'm doing it wrong.Quirks Wife: No.

Q. How do you fit your obsession with CC into your daily lives?We aren't crazy about Facebook or any other forums. We only play a few games at a time. So it's easy to get our daily dose of CC. She's on during the day while I'm at work and I'm on later at night. It just sort of fits in there.

Q. So quirk's wife, I (betiko) heard you liked scrabble?She's too good at Scrabble. That's why I had to get her into CC. Yep. Current rating 1287.

Q. Quirks: Why do you both rarely venture outside of the Off Topics forums?I browse through the other forums but I usually don't have anything to add. Only the most important things draw me away.

Q. You seem more involved in the forums than games...what types of topics do you enjoy the most?I like threads about current events. I don't have time to filter through all the crap in the news these days. The regular CC posters provide some informative links.As for games - We've been more active in the last few months. The amount of time I spend in each varies. I mostly read the forums. Give me an AoG thread any day.

Q. Do you all discuss Conquer Club at the dinner table?Often. We eat as soon as I get home from work. So I always ask "What's up in CC?" Of course.

Q. Do you find it amusing that only a select few have figured out your real IDENTITY?It's always funny to see how new posters in the longest thread react to me.

Q. How has Conquer Club impacted your marriage, if at all?It always helps to have something we can share. I can't see that it's really made a difference one way or another.

Q. What do you enjoy most about Conquer Club?It doesn't take as much time as some of the games I used to play when I was single. It allows me to have some gaming time without neglecting my family. The false idol worship.

Q. Do you prefer to play against your spouse or on a team with your spouse?On a team. When we play together we play in games where all the players know each other. I enjoy a good game against the spouse.

Q. Do you suppose Quirk Jr. will ever make a CC account to complete the CC Quirk family?He's only three but he sees us taking our turns so he pretends to take his turn. It's only a matter of time. Of course.

Q. What is your favorite forum game?The Song Game, of course. I like The Song Game. I can post as many Todd Rundgren songs in there as I want.

Q. What is your favorite longest thread, thread post? strike wolf and I used to talk a lot about music in the longest thread. I posted a list of my favorite concerts in 2008. It was a lot of fun going through all my old concert tickets. It's lame to choose one of my own posts as my favorite but it took some time to make the list. Some of my old tickets where in bad shape.

Q. What is it like living in Athens, Georgia?Mild climate, good sports and food, with a variety of music and art. I love Athens. I've lived here for twenty years. I hope to raise my son here. It's one of the more liberal towns in Georgia. It's really great. I'll never leave.

Q. Do you spend a lot of time training your hair to stand up like that?I wake up with some version of that hairstyle every morning. This is obviously not a question for me as I have perfect hair.

Q. Have you eaten at Weaver D's? Because it was closed when I (macbone) was there.Weaver D is one creepy dude. I prefer Wilson's Soul Food. Mom's Kitchen was my favorite before she retired. I have not ever eaten at Weaver D's. I hear that guy's kinda creepy.

Q. What's your favorite place for music in Athens?The Georgia Theatre Hands down the 40 Watt Club. Some people like The Georgia Theatre.

Q. Best restaurant?Kelly's Wings an' Tings or The Taco Stand I have eaten at a lot of pretty good places in Athens, The Grit being among them, but I must say that a brisket taco from Taco Del Sol on Prince Ave. is the best thing I've had lately.

Q. Best college team in the city?My alma mater UGA Go Dawgs!

Q. Favorite bulldog statue?The one at Quirk Jr's favorite park. I like the Banker in front of Athens First Bank and Trust in downtown Athens. He looks spiffy with his pocket watch.

Q. Do you play fleet strategy games?Axis & Allies War at Sea. That's my Japanese fleet in my sig. I don't know what that is.

Q. What other strategy games do you play?I've been playing strategy games since the early 80's. I occasionally still play Magic and Axis & Allies Miniatures. I've been in the mood for chess lately. Magic the Gathering

Q. If you were to join a clan, which one would it be?Whichever one would have me. The sacrilegious one. Is there one of those?

Q. What's your favourite thing to do at Christmas?Surprise someone with an unexpected gift. I really enjoyed playing the Christmas map on CC.

Q. Who's better at CC? The original board game?I'd say we are about even at CC. We haven't played the original against each another. I have more experience but she's a natural. Quirk got me into this, so I'll have to say he's probably better. I have beaten him plenty of times on CC. We've never played the RISK board game together. I think I played it once in the 90's. I won that game. We have the Axis and Allies Miniatures, but we haven't played with them in awhile.

Q. Do you actually have any quirks? Do you, for instance, insist on walking down the stairs backwards or anything like that?My name is Sean Quirk. It's an Irish name. My father's parents met on the boat coming over from Ireland in the 1920's. I don't have any specific quirks but I have my own odd way of doing things. Of course it doesn't seem odd to me but people seem to think the name is fitting. I have Tourettes Syndrome, so I'm a bit more ticky than quirky.

Thanks for your time!

Hello again my friends, and welcome to your favorite part of the Newsletter, "War Games", where you can find information about CC Tournaments!

The big news in the Tournaments World is the combination TO of the Year/Tournament Primes contest. The Primes are the CC equivalent of the Oscars, and the name "Primes" is in honour of Optimus Prime, the "godfather" of CC tournaments. If you've played in a tournament this year which struck you as being particularly memorable, I suggest you drop by the nomination thread and nominate it!

Because there is still some confusion about this, I want to help clear it up. What you are nominating is a specific tournament, not a tournament organiser. Within each category, there will be Bronze, Silver and Gold Primes handed out based on the tournaments nominated. Although the contest is called "TO of the Year" you are not nominating the TO directly. A TO will automatically be considered nominated if one of his tournaments wins a Golden Prime.

This issue is absolutely chock-full of tournament how-to stuff! Sensfan and DaveH have launched a new idea: co-ordinated articles about the same type of tournament. Sensfan, in his "World of Possibilities" series, will discuss the basic layout and the pros and cons of various tournament formats. DaveH, in his "Tournament Tips" series, brings his spreadsheet genius to bear on that format and shows you how to keep the scoring process smooth and efficient.

Also in this issue plurple brings you "Dodging Bullets" about avoiding some of the pitfalls of tournament organising, Sensfan continues the "TPA Wrap" and NoSurvivors takes over "Join This? Or Not!" which is now our longest continually-running series!

A World of PossibilitiesWant a format where it's fair, simple and not too many games to make?

Featured Format: Round RobinWhat is it?This format has nothing to do with Robins, and not too much with rounds. Nonetheless, it is a simple format used very often in professional sporting events.

Round Robin is when you place a certain number of players in a group. Then, all those players play each other once. Of, course they could play each other twice, which would be Double Round Robin, three times would be Triple Round Robin, etc.

Visual GuideDon’t catch? Here’s an example from the 2010 World Cup of Soccer in South Africa. There are 4 teams in this group: France, Mexico, Uruguay and South Africa itself. They all play each other once, for a total of six games.

Pros and ConsPros: It's fair, everyone plays everyone once, it's not too game-heavy, it's not complicated, it's easy to describe and it makes a fun tournament.Cons: You can't really go wrong with this, other than the fact that you might be stuck with a group of tough players and lose all three. There aren't that many games so one mishap or a game of bad dice can really matter.

Perfect Pair!I meant to do Single Elimination followed by Round Robin since in many professional tournaments, including the World Cup, teams play in 4 team round robin and then the highest two teams in points move on to a 16 player Single Elimination bracket. What a perfect pair!

Cheat CodeTo determine the number of games you have to make, here’s a cheat code!

Let’s say we have a 4-team group. Single Round Robin. Each team plays three games (every team except themselves) So take 4 teams multiplied by 3 games. That’s 12. Then, divide by 2. Voilà! 6 games.

Try that with a 32-team group. Single Round Robin again. Each teams plays 31 games. 32 multiplied by 31 is (grabs calculator) 992. Divide by 2, we get 496. Whoo! That’s a lot of games! I don’t think I’ve even played that many!

If you want to do Double Round Robin, with a 32-team group, just double the number you would get with a Single Round Robin format. And there you go, 992 games. (Since 64*31/2 = 992)

Next TimeNext time, we look at a more challenging format, Double Elimination. And in Cheat Code, some free online programs that might help you organize these multi-game formats. And DaveH will have some Double Elimination information as well!

Sensfan is covering Round Robin type tournaments in this edition, where everyone plays each other, perhaps just one game on a neutral map or two games on a home and away map, with points allocated as required. This article adds a few hints at managing these types of tournaments.

The simplest way is to use Challonge or Leaguerepublic sites to do the hard work for you - just update the game results on the sites and the results table is updated automatically - with a handy link that you put in your tournament thread. One hint if you use these sites is that, when you update the results also update your thread in some other way, say round number. Otherwise after a number of rounds, it may be flagged up as an abandoned tournament!

Alternatively, you may want to publish the league table using your own spreadsheet. Refering to the league table that is in Sensfan's article: This has a list of players and their number of wins and draws. Of course, we can't draw a game in CC, so let's assume that only one game is played on a neutral map.The points column of your spreadsheet therefore has the code of "= pointsperwin x number of wins".

If two games are played, one on a home map and the other on the away map, then there is a point for a home or away win plus a bonus point for winning both. The points are therefore 0 for two losses; 1 point for each player for winning one game each and 3 points for winning on both maps. The code for your spreadsheet for the points is therefore:

Of course, as Sensfan says, the possibilities are endless - limited only by the scope of your imagination! They can get as realistic as you want (depending on how much work you want to put into your tournament!); for instance flexmaster33's "Major League Soccer 2011" viewtopic.php?t=139081has teams of 3:The forward player plays 3 games against the opponents back player and the midfield players play 4 games. The team then plays 1 game to determine the goalie's point! Of course there are home and away maps apart from the team game. Fantastic!

Other Round Robin formats may have points awarded according to other factors. For instance, in terminator games such as trinicardinal's "Trini's Terminator Tournament (TTT)" tournament, the points are recorded according to the termination sequence: viewtopic.php?t=157017.

But there are so many variations on awarding points that you can be as creative as you like! I have tried awarding points equal to 15 minus the round number (so as to to award fast finishes!) and also the CC points that a player gained when winning. All in all, the points are whatever your imagination can come up with - and the game format can be as simple or as complex as you like - proving that you already have planned how you are going to update it - otherwise it can be become quite a burdon to update.

(These "tips" are ones that I have tried to make it a bit easier in managing my own tournaments. I am sure there are many different and better methods than these, so please let me know. Any queries on the above I'll be glad to respond to!)

I know we have DaveH's excellent tournament tips, but from my own experience in my first few tournaments, I have thought of a few things that would have helped me out in those first few to make less mistakes. First of all, make sure you have the names of all of your participants written down correctly so as to stop your inviting the wrong person or someone who doesn't exist. Secondly, make sure you have covered any and all eventualities that you can think of (g.e. in one of my tournaments, I had forgotten to make conditions for when there was a tie-breaker and so when I realized I was involved in the tie-breaker, there were a few discussions with the other fellow involved to make sure the resolution was fair for both of us, as we were both biased to wanting to stay in the competition). Therefore, it is important to remember everything at the beginning, so you don't end up in that sort of situation. But if you do forget something and you are in the same situation as I was, you need to remember to handle the situation calmly and fairly in the interests of all players like I did.

TPA Season 1: WrapIn the Master of Assasin tournament, two games are remaining with Timminz, Zivel or SirSebstar in the hunt for the W. Other than that, no significant action, other than 2 final rounds.

TPA 2 Headlines

TPA Season 2: Completed TournamentsAs mentioned in the past, only 1 tournament has been finished to date. DJ Teflon's Speed Terminator V finished with Leehar winning with a dominating Kill Point Percentage of 3600%. Uckuki came in second with 2100%. Leehar wins the first completed event of the year, winning 500 points. Uckuki is in second with 300.

TPA Season 2 ErrorMy mistake. Last edition I mentioned that ubcman won CC Golf Match Play 2. I actually misread the google docs sheet. That was last years competition. Apologies.

The following are as of January 12th, 2012.

TPA2: Tournament in Closing StagesBruceswar EscalatingBruceswar Escalating is in their final round, and here are the results so far:Deng Xiao Ping takes Hong KongGameplayer wins FranceTripitaka takes ClassicDeantursx has the lead in British IslesAfrica is a toss-up.

It definently looks like Africa will be the decider, and a 5-way tie definently not out of the question here. This might be one of the closest finals yet.

So, you Wanna Be a PirateSo, you Wanna be a Pirate has their final four, among them keiths31, Hath, Tripitaka and Enormastitz. They play on Oceania.

World Cup format DoublesWe're in the semi-finals of this first TPA major. In the first semi, we have Barterer2002 & dtellis going up against KKlemen & emperor69. Meanwhile, Bones2484 and Timminz clash with xman5151 and akabob2. Teams play on Holy Roman Empire, High Seas, British Isles, Caribbean Islands and on American Civil War.

Other TournamentsElsewhere, Asia Terminator is in it's maiden round, as well is Chief Trio. Is Random a Map? is in Round 2, as well is Angola loves the originals, Guojia Anquan Bu in Phase Two, and Phantom's Popularity Contest in the 5th round.

TPA 1 Standingssonicsteve and MudPuppy have pulled away from the pack, and it looks like Sonicsteve might be our TPA1 victor, with a 2 point lead over MudPuppy, who might have done too little, too late.Bones2484 and danryan jostling for 3rd place, and HighlanderAttack leads Enormastitz by one point for 5th. barterer2002 looks comfortable in 7th, and ubcman64, Timminz, ga7 all within 2-tenths of a point of each other. Could tokle, in 11th, sneak into the top 10? He's only a half-point behind!

TPA 2 Standings

No change in standings.

Did You Know?* That sonicsteve had won the most points total for the first half of the season, and MudPuppy has so far won the most points total for the second round? * That QoH has the smallest amount of TPA1 points? Only 0.03! Of course, at least he scored points at all, so he does better than those who got no points at all.

Paparazzi's Corner Program NoticeYes, due to no new developments, I've scratched the Paparazzi's Corner this time around. However... do you have a question for any TPA player, commissioner, graphics designer? Drop me a pm with your question and the juiciest ones get picked and asked, to be featured in the next edition of the TPA Update Wrap Paparazzi's Corner.

In Conclusion...Bruceswar Escalating and World Cup Format Doubles are all shaping up to be exciting finishers, and could Sonicsteve have enough points to take the TPA1 crown? Maybe we'll find out in the next episode!

Until next time, when you can expect:Predictions? Yep.Breaking News? Right here.Opinion? Got some.

And now for our regular look at a selection of the tournaments in sign-ups:

1. Doodle CrackThis is my number one pick, due to its creativity. The set up is (I find) amusing, and I also know a LOT of people LOVE doodle The doodle crack name is also VERY relevant (considering how much people play it!!!) So if you need to get YOUR fill, Join Doodle Crack!

2. Creepy Songs TournamentAlthough this is a very bias pick, I think that the Creepy Songs tournament is a GREAT idea! It has a theme of rock and roll music (even though its apparently "creepy" ) Also, you get to choose the map you want, which I think is always fun! So if YOU have a creepy song that needs to be heard, join up the Creepy Songs tournament!

3. city mogul quadsThis is my 3rd pick, because I love city mogul! It is a tough map to learn, but it is never a dull moment when you learn to play! Also, the triples-style tourney is great for those who want to play some teams. The name is self explanitory, but watch out for those nukes! Grow strong as a community and partner up for city mogul quads!

4. MINI CLAN WAR IIThis if my 4th pick this week. The consept of this is a great idea. Very creative. Mini 4 person clans going to war, is an adventure in itself! Also, like my third pick, it encourages players to play teams with players they may not know! So dont be shy, join MINI CLAN WAR II!

5. Pokémon: Generation ICalling all Pokémon fans! My last (and certianly not least!) pick this week is Pokémon: Generation I, Where you become the Pokémon, battling for the chance to become the ultimate Pokémon! For all you hardcore Pokémon lovers like myself, I strongly sugguest you catch em all and join Pokémon: Generation I!

If you're craving tourney action now, check out the Requests for Immediate Players section of the tournament forum. You can be playing very quickly after signing up as a reserve.

Welp, this is my last issue of deja vu for the Foundry section! thehippo8 should be back on duty next issue Anywho, koontz returns with his "Foundry News" and "What's Where in the Foundry" series - enjoy!

Rorke's Drift by koontz1973 has been at the centre of controversy this week. It seems some players are taking advantage of certain settings to win lots of games from inexperienced players. A good thing about beta is that we can change the map to stop these things happening. So if you did not like it before, give it a go now and send some feedback to the the map maker. Has the changes spoilt the map? and will the changes work? Thanks to HighlanderAttack, SirSebstar, thenobodies and DiM for helping with the changes.

Apologiesgimil, one of our beloved foundry mods went away for 13 days with no internet (or so he claims). When he came back, he begged for our forgiveness. This has not been given easily.

RjBeals wrote:well thank goodness you checked in and apologized. Folks were starting to get angry that you were absent!

Victor Sullivan wrote:-Sully

DiM wrote:the "internet was down" excuse is bull. i know for a fact he overdosed on bacon and he spent the last few days on a gravy-induced coma while being fed melted cheese through a tube.

cairnswk wrote:dirty stop-out

In the end, I am sure he will be forgiven. As long as he gets round to stamping some maps (mine please )Encouraging novice map-makers & USA discouragementA thread was started to ask for encouragement for new map makers and a stop to all USA maps. While some others have answered in the thread natty_dread mega posted his thoughts on this and covers pretty much everything. Here are his thoughts.

natty_dread wrote:

J_Indr wrote:1) Sometimes I feel that people are dismissive and unnecessarily harsh on new map-makers.

Sorry, but making maps is not a right on CC. It's a priviledge, and only when you've proved that you can bring something worthwhile on the table, your map project will be taken seriously.

That is to say, everyone is welcome to try to make a map. But if they do it and put it out there, they have to be prepared to face all the criticism, feedback and suggestions with an open mind and try to better themselves. And sometimes, the idea is just really bad or stupid, and then it's best that the new mapmaker hears it straight away so that instead of wasting time on a bad idea, he can focus his efforts on a better one.

J_Indr wrote:I think that structurally it should be made more clear to say what we expect from new maps. Original idea / design / gameplay; I know. But I guess that all is not something you can expect from an inexperienced map-maker.

It helps if you don't run head-first into mapmaking. Stick around in the foundry for a while. Follow some maps, see how it's done, see how maps develop from start to finish, and you'll have some kind of idea of what it takes.

J_Indr wrote:There seems to be a resistance to a classic map design (i.e. no special gameplay, just territories in bonus regions, at most with some special bonus in capitals).

No there isn't, there are plenty of classic-gameplay maps in the foundry right now. But a new map must bring something unique and interesting to CC. If your idea is boring, and the gameplay has no redeeming qualities, then the whole map is boring.

J_Indr wrote:Would it make sense to even establish a sort of internal guidelines that would suggest that the gameplay itself doesn't need to be very original for the FIRST (or the first two) maps of a map-maker?

No, it would absolutely make no sense whatsoever. There will NEVER be more lax guidelines for mapmaking just because the mapmaker is inexperienced. That is NOT how the foundry works. The foundry does not exist to satisfy the creative urges of mapmakers (well, it does that, but that is not it's purpose). The foundry exists to create the best possible maps for the players, and if we let mapmakers make sub-par maps just because "they're new and can't do any better yet" then what's the point, we might as well rename the site to Landgrab 2.0 at that point...

However, like I said, there are plenty of classic-gameplay maps in the foundry, and there's no resistance for them as long as the map offers something new and interesting.

J_Indr wrote:2) USA maps. I for one love the idea of Mega USA map, but I agree that it's a bit boring and unrepresentative to have such a huge amount of the USA maps.

Maps of USA have to fulfill the same guidelines as any other - they need to bring something new and interesting to CC. If they do that, and there's support for having those maps, and they meet the CC standards (both thematically and graphically) - then there's no reason not to have them.

And lastly for today, HighlanderAttack is asking what can a normal player do for the foundry. He has always done some feedback for beta maps but was wondering can he do more?

natty_dread wrote:Personally, I'd like more skilled players with experience of various game types to wander in earlier in the development. Especially for maps in gameplay development (the threads with red dots). Gameplay feedback is something that has always been the most lacking in the foundry - we have tons of people with graphical skill, but not too many who can just walk in to a map thread and analyze all the aspects of the gameplay.

koontz1973 wrote:As a player of high quality HA, one thing I would love to see you do is get more into the drafting room and the main foundry to have a look at the game play issues. This goes for all players. The more input players give, the better the games and in the end, less work when in beta (if your suggestions work out).

Things to look for - Are the legends clear.Do the bonuses look OK.Is there a pathway that should be deleted or added for better games.Is the image itself clear on what can be done?

Really, just about any type of input given on game play would be great. Even if you think a map should go in a different direction with game play, say so.

His response to these requests was

HighlanderAttack wrote:Ok I will do what I can with some free time

I will also advertise a little in my tourneys for players to give input

Lets see what's where in the foundry today.Drafting RoomFrance 2.0 has joined the foundry from Lancelot du Lac who seems to be unhappy with our current offering of this country. Polderland is causing BadgerJelly some problems with what is a draft. Ever helpful, he has been pointed in the right direction. Riskmaster101 brings us a new map with an old map feel to it.Mafia is also still in the drafting room.Sweden is on lots of maps but has none of its own. Roberth is going to try and change this with his first offering in the foundry.

The first map of only Sweden (it might be a small country in population but large in area and mighty in influence).

Main Foundry1982 about the Falklands conflict has been stickied so will be gone over with a fine tooth comb by everyone and there mother for a few days.Jakarta has had a change in style since it was put into the recycle bin. Back out now and more beautiful than ever.DiM brings us his version of a 2 player map set about a siege of a castle. You will play the attackers or defenders, both with unique game playing styles. Looking for some game play ideas at the moment.lostatlimbo has changed his 8 player map into a 2 player map seamlessly with CONQUERSHIP. Based on the classic 2 player Battleship game.Papua New Guinea by ndrswas the winner of the last foundry graphics competition. Still looking for ideas on how to turn this map from good to great. Pop on in.Knights by koontz1973 is waiting on a final graphics look over by the foundry mods to see if anything else is needed to be done or if the style needs to change on this one. Copenhagen sightseeing by FlapCake is looking for game play ideas right now. natty_dread take on wizard wars.

cairnswk, the most prolific map maker for this site is still at it. Here is the latest map in the railway series. Previous versions include Africa, Australia, Europe, USA. Whats next for this series? This map has been stickied so will be in the final forge next time I guess, if he can convince people his title is the best. Final ForgeThe final forge has 6 maps in it now (apart from the beta played maps).

Island of Doom. DiM's third entry this week (in the FF). All I want to know, who is he bribing and how much money is changing hands.

Nothing has entered beta over the last two weeks but a flurry of activity will bring us some of these 6 over the next 2 weeks.Lastly this week. Yugoslavia is entering the final phase of beta. Any last suggestions must be posted now.

Happy gaming everyone, whatever map takes your fancy.

It's been a busy start of the clan year, with the commencement of the 4th edition of the highly acclaimed Clan League with games set to start imminently. With just short of 40 clans participating to make this likely the biggest and best Season yet, it's sure to be a cracker! In aid of that, we'll also be looking for reporters to take on the challenge of reporting on events underway in the different divisions of the League, so if you're interested in documenting the journey of your clan in the quest for League glory, shoot us a pm and get a free GA medal for your efforts!

We've also had a changing of the guard at the helm of the Clan Directorship, so please Welcome Bruceswar as Head CD as he replaces fellow clan member and leader Masli who resigns to take some time back for himself after the drains of modship.

This will be a quick update for everyone to catch the scores on this wonderful tournament for the clan's that don't always get the recognition they deserve. All the wars in Round 2 are 43 game wars. With the higher seed (1st clan listed in each war) making 21 games, while the lower seed makes 22.Sets will be split as follows:6 doubles7 triples7 quads1 or 2 Game(s) of choice (1 for higher seed, 2 for lower seed)

First lets Start out with the battle involving our number 1 seed KOA vs MD With MD leading KOA 15-6. This is quite the upset for most people to see and with MD's home games just going out a few days ago they look like they could take this one with as much as 30 wins. This is a huge shock for the members of KOA, who were very confident going into this tournament with many posts predicting a romp to the finals, but unless they can pull off a miracle it looks like their run may very well end with their first war in the tourney.

Second we have GR vs 1RFGGR leading 1RFG 15-5. By the looks of things 1RFG will be sending their games out shortly, and will need to do the same thing as KOA in pulling off a miracle. This was one of those wars that most people considered to be close, giving the edge to the more experienced GR. But by the looks of things so far the elder clan will just be mopping the floor with 1RFG.

Third we have AKA vs IGNIAKA leading IGNI 6-4.But many of these games will be finishing up soon, and looks like it will be a very close match going into IGIN's home games. This looks like it will be another one of those nail biter's going into the endgame, and should be a fun one to watch. The real question is will the controversy with AKA's number 2 in command be enough to throw a slight favor to IGNI, or will AKA be fine without one of their stalwart leaders?

Finally we have DYN vs LHDDLHDD leading Dyn 4-3.This was the final war to start the second round, and if it is anything like LHDD vs TNC, it will be another nail biter to watch. With the newest coming in vs another very solid and proven clan, I don't think there will be anything less than a lot of excitement rolling in during this war, since it looks like DYN know who they are facing, and they don't feel like LHDD is anything but new and therefore won't be doing much of the underestimating that perhaps highly fancied TNC fell to in the first round.

Feel free to stop by and wish some luck to the clans you are rooting for, or just see what is going on in the clan world as of wars.

2011's is already finished and 2012's been here for more than a fortnight. At this time I'd like to sit and look back at my last year. But this article is not about my clan or my life, but yours. Was 2011 a good year for your clan? What's your greatest accomplishment and your worst? What are your wishes for your clan for the next year? What are your priorities!

While some clan leaders are not often around at this time of the year, I'd like to thanks maasman from NEM, lokisgal from IA, downfall from LEG and Great-Ollie from PACK for answering all my questions.

By answering the simple question ``What was the greatest accomplishment of your clan in 2011?`` we can see who had a great year and who haven't. At IA the answer was clear, they won the Clan League Season 3 and are very proud of it (who wouldn't be!?). Great-Ollie from PACK told me that they are really proud of the 9 win streak since creating their clan. Those two clans related their greatest war accomplishment, while LEG simply told me that their greatest accomplishment was staying intact. A honourable achievement in itself. It's all the opposite for NEM, whose maasman can only say :« Looks like the only thing we did of any magnitude was beat DB. »

For NEM, 2011 was a terrible year, they lost many positions on the F400 Ranking. They were destroyed by EMP, a clan that they respect a lot. NEM don't intend to continue with any recruitment or playing in any war. maasman wish for all his clan mates to be able to find a new clan and be successful in it. It takes a lot of courage to make those statements, realistic of the situation, he doesn't see NEM as a competitive clan any longer.

While sad for NEM it's s completely the opposite at LEG, who seem like a tight clan, really hard to enter, but once in it it's pretty much for life as the saying goes. That's why they are successful. They are always looking for great players but don't intend to do a lot of recruiting. The main goal of LEG is to be successful for once in the clan league «We are wishing for a good showing in the Clan League. We have never played well in it for some reason. However, this time the format may favor us a bit more than in the past.»

2011 was also a great year for IA, they won the clan league and had good and bad moments over the last year. They had a busy year, like everyone! And they'll try their best to defend their title in the next clan league season.

The PACK is still a young clan and very motivated with a great history of clan wins. They wish they can one day finish at the top of the F400 ranking and they'll try to get a war and beat EMP, a clan that they respect a lot. They believe in their skills and are not afraid of anyone. They only have positive memories about 2011, except that some clan mates don't got some clan medals for some dark reasons... nonetheless they intend to get many more in the next year.

That was the year of four clans of CC, those stories may seems like one of yours, but what was your last year of CC? Was it good? And what of 2012? Time will tell, but I wish you all a good year in your clan and if you're not in a clan... I wish you can find one and succeed with it.